Aomine.5012

> @Lalainnia.3598 said:

> Should remove/replace the quick fire trait and nerf ashes of the just to share 1 stack of burning will be pretty darn sad if they mess with the entire tome.

I think F2 and F3 are fine as is since you can't really do anything other than support while in it.

F1 #4 and #5 need some number toning down though.

Also F1 need a global cooldown of 10 sec to prevent people from recharging f1 instantly upon killing one single foe.

The point is f1 has such a big effect, short cd, short aftercast on such a large radius burning skill.

It's not just op in pve, it's broken in wvw and pvp too.

30 stacks of burning in 1.5 sec when you have quickness is just broken.

> @Lome.8239 said:

> Soulbeast is fun and might be cool for pvp but for open world soloing core Ranger still reigns supreme, and in group content there may never come a replacement for Druid if they keep it how it is. GotL and GoE are just too good and bring far more to a groups output than OWP.

For roaming I run BM, Nature, Soulbeast.

Soulbeast has some damage trait, so it's not completely inferior to things like skirmishing/ marksmanship, plus I get to use some useful f2 or f3 when merged, plus I get a free rev for pet in merely 10 sec cd.

> @ProtoMarcus.7649 said:

> > @Aomine.5012 said:

> > You should have played a Shout Guardian if you like Leader of Pack that much.

> > Basically they do the same thing, group cleanse, group stability, group protection, etc, except Soulbeast need to waste a Grandmaster slot for it to work on party.

>

> Similar things but not the same. Similar because they're buffs and grant some boons

> Not the same because, well, they have completely different and unique effects.

>

> * Second Strike on attack on low interval

> * Might on evade + greater endurance regen

> * Immunity to soft CCs

> * Condi to heal per pulse

> * Might on self or poison on foe

> * 66% boon duration bonus

>

> Those are pretty different from guard shouts

Ofc they do slightly different things, but if you wanna do case by case comparison, then here goes:

Guardian Shout can be traited that ALL of them cleanse.

The duration is MUCH longer than Ranger's shout because it doesn't has half duration limitation, and can be further enhanced through concentration.

They have shorter cd in general after traited.

One shout grant quickness to the whole party. (One Wolf Pack increase dps too but 4 sec on party lolz...)

One shout grants Aegis which Ranger has no access to.

One shout draws all condition from allies, which is even more similar to our Bear Stance.

My original point is the theme and play-style is exactly the same as Lead the Pack.

Unless Anet fix this trait to grant full duration and reduced trait cd, as well as reducing cd/ buffing effects on some of the more lackluster Stances, I doubt Soulbeast will replace Shout Guardian any time soon in places like WvW.

You should have played a Shout Guardian if you like Leader of Pack that much.

Basically they do the same thing, group cleanse, group stability, group protection, etc, except Soulbeast need to waste a Grandmaster slot for it to work on party.

It has been bothering me for awhile, but does the damage value of Entangle is totally bugged and does significantly less damage than it should?

Tested both in PVE and PVP and they always only tick bleeding equivalent to one stack only.

The damage is just so pathetic atm.

Can you guys please patch it asap? It's been at least 2 months that Entangle does no damage.

Idk why Anet has to keep on nerfing ranger's elite despite they're already quite terrible.

(Entangle doing no damage at all, StoP no longer pulses stability so one boon removal = rip, Druid Elite glyph sucks, One Wolf Pack is mediocre, etc)

Many time I really wish to just grab an extra utility skill over the worthless Elite skills we have here...

It's so bad that Syvari's racial skill does higher damage than all the other Ranger's Elite, which is such a joke.

To me entering Beast Mode becomes a form of utility for just using f2 / f3 / Sick em , as well as a form of reviving pet and stack boons.

I unmerged whenever I am done with the above utility, there's no reason to camp it cuz you can't choose which bonus stat you get.

I think this is actually the way Soulbeast is meant to be played, considering the bonus damage is so pathetic when merged,

I'm using Jaracarda now, so Beastmode means I get a free cleanse and 2 bonus healing skill outside of my original healing source, which is quite nice.

I also utilize Beastmode's F3 aoe pull for Whirling Defense hitting all the targets.

To me Soulmeast is like a stronger Skirmishing now, since Skirmishing is a pure dps trait.

Soulbeast has similar dps increase to Skirmishing, but this time grant you 3~4 more useful utilities to work on, that's about all.

PS: I've been working around Soulbeast since launch so I think I know a fair share of it already.

> @EpheSOSIayer.6370 said:

> I'll test the dps again soon, but I'm busy at the moment. As far as I see, the bugfix doesn't decrease the dps significantly. I did some test without shortbow too and the dps was still 33k+ (e.g. dagger/torch only)

>

> To be honest, 32k with ALL buffs is not a high value especially with power classes (glyph of empoerment uptime). With realistic buffs I guess this number is under 30k. I usually use less buffs. As you can see in my video, I didn't take the engineer condi buff, because in my raid group noone plays engineer. I hope that power ranger will get spot in raids/fractals but the gap pre pof was just such high, that closing this gap would be already an achievement

My point is before Soulbeast, Power ranger dps is around 23k max even with unrealistic buff lolz..

Soulbeast did improve the dps by 50%~

I'm surprised by the comment section of Ele.

While rangers were happy to reach 36k dps with Soulbeast, Ele is complaining about 48k is not enough/ situational/ whatever reason.

As if other dps specs highest dps are not situational?

Some requires stationary target, some requires complicated movement maneuver (Daredevil).

Most of the dps specs benchmarks are unrealistic in the first place, so reaching 48k in a vacuum situation is very impressive .

To EpheSOSIayer.6370

You're testing it wrong regarding to power build, probably with wrong traits / gears/ rotation.

Here's my result.

I were abit reluctant to post this because I fear Anet might do something to Sick Em...



PS: Trait Marksmanship, BM, Soulbeast.

Same set-up as my petless power ranger dps testing.

> @calb.3128 said:

> I understand what you're saying and to some extent I agree, but...

>

> * This only affects Soulbeast, so pet choices in core or Druid remain unchanged.

> * This is little different to GW2 to date, where a small selection of pets have been the go-to options for power or condi builds, with players remarking negatively your pet choice they deem sub-par.

> * With the additional flexibility and/or complexity offered by the Soulbeast mechanic, having to make choices, rather than taking the best of all worlds, is key.

> * A desire to use a specific pet may encourage open-minded build design to facilitate inclusion of a different stat type.

> * It's a visual cue to other players to indicate the build you're playing and the skills they can expect, aiding in PvE and expanding counter-play in PvP/WvW.

> * While I don't necessarily agree with the category each pet has been assigned to, it is fitting for an RPG, just like the usual stat distribution for pets in company.

>

> As previous, I don't think your complaint is without merit, but there are certainly some justifications for the current implementation.

The bonus stat is the key attraction of going into Beastmode because we lost a meat shield and pet dps, so why are we penalized for such action because the pets merge stat is not favourable to the situation?

With the current implantation, all power build will select:

Juvenile Red Moa

Juvenile Arctodus

Juvenile Tiger

Juvenile Sand Lion

Juvenile Lashtail Devourer

Juvenile Krytan Drakehound

Juvenile River Drake

Juvenile Eagle

Juvenile Cave Spider

Juvenile Smokescale

And nothing else.

Same can be said to the condition spec perspective.

So how does that promote diversity?

Maybe F3 can be bound to pets so people know which f3 ability you get by just looking at your pet, providing counter-play to it, but there's no reason stat bonus locking into certain pets, making other pets less attractive to pick just because it's not on the list of Ferocious pet.

> @ProtoMarcus.7649 said:

> What.

>

> Killing diversity? Selectable merge bonus not dependent on pet?

>

> Not even sure it's a serious post?

For example, I enjoy using Wyverns, but Soulbeast merge bonus for wyvern is toughness which I have no use for.

So now I'm stuck with Smokescale or something...

Now 51 pets we're just gonna use 15 of them base on stat bonus instead of their actual synergy and functionality.

You call this diverse?

Bear will still never be used in PVE despite its useful f2 skill, because the stat bonus is bad.

Please, stop further pigeon-hole us into certain pets.

We finally got some diversity in pet choice, and then we're forced to get stats we don't need on pets we want to use.

Can you guys please PLEASE just make the merge bonus stat selectable when out of combat?

Seriously you're killing the diversity here because power spec would be forced to use power bonus stat pets and so does condition spec.

This is a very very bad design.

I hope they do so quickly before the actual launch or you'd be enjoying yourself in PoF map and then got a refund later.

Your poll is very bad.

Where's the option of I would stick with ranger, but as ranger instead of Druid?

In which game mode?

For general traveling around map quickly, GS will be fine despite its terrible dps, but with the introduction of Mount, this advantage may be obsolete.

For Power build, obviously sword axe. It's doing almost 35% more damage than GS, and currently the highest dps weapon set for power ranger.

Dagger may likely be the condition weapon choice in raid/ fractal for condi ranger, depending on how Anet buff the dagger attack speed.

Otherwise it'd be inferior to axe. Need more dps testing after the launch to figure this out, so it's useless to speculate at this moment.

As for PVP, sword is better for bunker build because of 2 evades built in it. Dagger will likely be useless because it has no defensive skill built in it, nor is it good in engage/ disengaging, and it also severely lack burst damage, and it's not a reliable weapon to spam condition on someone because it lacks pbaoe.

For WvW, GS's leaping skill may still be important for engage and disengaging.

> @"Substance E.4852" said:

> > @Morphic.7045 said:

> >

> > Overall many of these elite specs just look like they had no idea what they had in mind for them. I appreciate the work they put into them but honestly feel that there's a few that need to go back to the drawning board.

>

> The problems is Raids.

>

> The HoT specs were clearly heavily designed in many ways to synchronize well with the new raid system that also introduced us to breakbars. Thus, we got a lot of builds that dealt heavy CC as well as several with laser precision focus on what they were supposed to be. (healbot druid, boonspam herald, perma alacrity chrono). Many also got hard hitting condi builds to undo the "zerk meta". (nice job on just shifting us to viper meta btw)

>

> This time, we don't really have that central concept to build specs around and much of them feel like they came up with themes that would fit the North African / Arabian feel of Elona and then tried to figure out ways to make them work as actual game mechanics.

>

> They were also kind of forced to make all the HoT specs work well because it's a hard sell to convince people to buy HoT when they're preferred class can't use the new elite spec system because theirs kitten. Now, even if spec2.0 kitten for a class, chances are they can just fallback on their spec1.0 and do just fine.

>

> It's honestly the opposite of what I feared for the spec system.

>

> I was worried that Anet would build a house of power-creep cards that would implode on them under it's own weight. Instead, it seems like the game is going to just drown in a sea of false choice filled with "meh" options.

>

> Renegade, Soulbeast, and Mirage feel like the future of all classes going forward unless Anet starts adding in dramatically new combat systems and mechanics or has the courage to explicitly make a spec that's just designed to be good at one aspect of the game.

>

> IE the next ranger spec is a Bunny Thumper type of deal with a hammer that does huge maul style moves all over the place but at a rate that isn't optimal pve dps and too clunky for pvp. It is, however, perfect for blowing up zergs in wvw and is intentionally designed to work there without regard for other game modes. Kind of like how hammer rev is hueg damage in WvW but not great pve dps.

>

> That's about the only way things can keep working going forward without more dimensionality to the combat system.

>

> > @Lazze.9870 said:

> > Boring and almost expected dagger changes and a frickin' Maul nerf on top of it.

> >

> > Ugh.

> >

> > Edit: _next attack_? So yo're telling me you not only cut the modifier in half, but now the modifier applies to any of our not-worth-a-kitten other GS skills?

> >

> > Double ugh.

>

> I think he just awkwardly worded his statement since that's how the skill reads already. It just applies to the maul itself because the buff is activated when the skill activates and ends up applying to the next skill impact which will naturally be the maul unless you use the skill to prime the effect beforehand.

>

> Or, it really could be after the skill resolves, in which case, the effect is basically useless.

>

> It didn't need a nerf either way though.

Your theory is mostly correct, except ranger has nothing to "fall back to" because of the inherent design issue.

Almost every single HoT espec are a "straight upgrade" of their original class, meaning the playstyle and the emphasis / role of the class are mostly the same as the original class and basically there's no reason to go back to the old spec whatsoever because the elite specialization are stronger than any of their old specs.

For example, Guardian would go DH for the most dps, and there's no reason to go back to any other older build because they can still be as tanky as their old build even staying as DH.

Daredevil is literally the superior trait of all the other theif's traits and there's no reason to go back to old one.

Tempest is literally a straight upgrade of default Ele with better aoe and condition.

Berserker is literally the stronger version of Warrior with much better burst skill and damage.

Reaper is literally the stronger version of condition necro.

Scrapper traitline itself and the weapon is literally superior to the rest of Engi weapons/ traits. (Except cond p/p build)

Druid on the other hand, is a complete different class compare to ranger, creating an "either or" situation, meaning instead of a powercreep straight upgrade of ranger, it's just a different class entirely.

Most of the HoT espec are powercreep of the original class, whereas Druid is not the original class of ranger, so if you enjoy ranger, there's nothing to fallback to.

Because of that , if SBeast suck bulls, it'd put ranger in a tough position because you'd have to go back to vanilla ranger instead of Druid if you don't plan on playing like a different class. This is why us rangers are desperately hoping that Soulbeast is not an inferior 2nd choice, but a STRAIGHT UPGRADE POWERCREEP of the original ranger because we didn't get such spec in HoT.

Honestly, the easiest way for a pet class like ranger to get a powercreep espec is to create a spec that can make our pet mechanic much stronger, like using two pet at the same time and make both of them hit harder and more tanky. This is what a powercreep suppose to be like for ranger, instead of taking away the pet.

Since every other HoT classes got their powercreep version of their original class already, why not let ranger get one too?

> @Blackari.2051 said:

> yes you are right in the title, it is NOT bad to kill Braham, in fact everyone would be happy to do so

Did you know how many times I redo that mission for the achievement of not getting frozen to listen to his terrible and annoying whining?

I really want him dead in this expansion.

> @meeflak.9714 said:

> > @zealex.9410 said:

> > > @StickerHappy.8052 said:

> > > WHY DO WE ONLY HAVE 5 CHANGES?

> > >

> > > CHECK OUT THE MIRAGE ONES. THEY TOUCHED WEAPONS, TRAITS, AMBUSH, ETC

> >

> > Mirage needed more.

>

> > @zealex.9410 said:

> > > @StickerHappy.8052 said:

> > > WHY DO WE ONLY HAVE 5 CHANGES?

> > >

> > > CHECK OUT THE MIRAGE ONES. THEY TOUCHED WEAPONS, TRAITS, AMBUSH, ETC

> >

> > Mirage needed more.

>

> We needed bug fixes. And QoL. Other elites got reworks to fix how clunky they felt. Mirage. Firebrand... We got nothing to address the clunky feeling of beast mode and we got nothing to address our bugs. You know. Like.. not getting your own buff's when using your own skills...

>

> This is assuming that if they were included fixes they would have been addressed in this post, which I'm sure they would have.

>

> We did get a maul nerf though

We got a quick nerf on one of the lowest damage weapons (Ranger's GS) in the game.

This is their priority I guess.

Seriously can we get some compensation back by buffing the AA damage by 50% ?

Firebrand got so many hot-fix to save the class and improve the overall performance.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/2698/firebrand-specialization-updates-for-the-path-of-fire-launch/p1

Ranger got a minor buff in dagger which were absolutely terrible beforehand and TWO NERFS already while no mention of bug fix, trait change, utility change and beastmode f1~f2 buff or pet swap issue in beastmode.

Just great.

I'd still play PoF as ranger though but mainly for new pets and mounts and that's about it.

My biggest fear:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/2697/soulbeast-specialization-updates-for-the-path-of-fire-launch/p1

Bang, it's there already before even the launch!

No bug fix mentioned for Doyak Stance either lolz..

Mantra improvement is very welcomed!

Now it's easier to use when stack.

Was hoping you guys add some condition clear option for Renegade's legend or from traits..//

Thank you for the update of dagger.

But can you guys please add in some functionality of dagger 2 to help survive / engage/ disengage in melee range?

It can't to be just a slightly stronger version of auto-attack.

If you really want to make it a dps skill, then please add more cover condition in addition to the bleeding so it has some actual functionality, such as weakness or blind.

Also since Warrior get TWO DAGGERS at the same time, can you guys please revisit the ranger's offhand dagger?

It is so under-performed than every other ranger weapons in the game. It has to be more than a low dps cripple and a long CD evade.

Maybe add in ammo system for the Stalker's Strike and improve the damage done by Crippling Talon drastically. (And causes immobilize too)

Also RIP Maul patch. Guess GS will still remains as the lowest dps weapon ever then.

I actually prefer that we either have 75% chance of block effect or pulsing Aegis during the channel, in addition to stability.

Back in GW1, Whirling Defense is actually a very strong block skill that blocks multiple incoming attacks within the duration, so I don't find adding some block effect to it is strange. The duration is pretty low, so it shouldn't be a problem adding this defensive option if we're going to stay rooted.